Thursday, 16 August 2012

I intended this one to go in the window, but I have decided that I hadn't considered the colours carefully enough when I chose it. It is a very pretty pink and will look lovely on one of the shelves inside the shop, but I am trying to colour co-ordinate the window dressing colours (peacock colours) and this is too gentle for the stuff alongside it. I might therefore have to remove the back and re-jig that in some way as it is a bit too tall to fit inside a shelf space. Lorraine has something like 500 kits, so she can't possibly give sizes for them. You need to think about what you want to do with them and be a bit flexible when making them up so you can adapt them to suit your needs.

This is my favourite one so far and will make a lovely centre piece for one of my windows. I think the gloves are especially lovely. As always with dollhousing you are working with small pieces but that's the fun of it. Take care not to snip off a finger. Trying to glue on the teeny 'diamanté jewel' at the end of the fan handle was a bit of a challenge but doable with patience and tweezers. There are extra fans in the kit, so you can choose the two you like best.

This is the 'plainest' of the ones I have chosen but is still a very nice little shelf or window filler. Again it is an ideal size for my window displays . It probably doesn't show here but I mounted the top label on double sided foam tape so it isn't stuck flat down on the back card which gives it a bit more interest.

'Sadly' I am being made to go to France for a week and eat chocolate and good food and sit in the sun, so I will have to abandon making little things (and this blog) for a while.

Thursday, 9 August 2012

Just so you don't think I have given up I thought I'd share today's delivery from The Craft pack Company with you. Remember if you click on a picture it will enlarge it. If you want a better look you'd have to do that this time as this photo isn't in a web album.

As you can probably see there are six little kits to make shop displays - all for twenty-seven pounds including postage. I decided it was actually cheaper to do it this way. I wanted to make a glove display for the window and needed six different coloured leathers/fabrics just for the gloves. Some of the leathers were six pounds each, so just doing that display would have cost the price of all these displays. Another example is the little blouse. I would have to buy more fabric and lace than I need; even the buttons and buckle (plus postage) are expensive and you end up with more than you want again. It seems to make much more sense to buy from someone who makes lovely little kits and has split up all the quantities in just the right amounts ready for you to use.I have made a start on the displays in the two shop rooms and the shop windows and will post some musings and pictures when I have got a little further along with it. Meanwhile the sun shines and the garden calls. Maybe tomorrow.......

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

I started dressing Bentleys and was pleasantly surprised to see how much stuff I already had collected for it and after dismantling my Wentworth there was even more. So far I have worked on four of the six rooms. The salon and the shop have a bit outfaced me for the moment - so much clobber - but I shall gird up my loins and attack it at the end of next week.Life is interrupting my dollhousing right now. We just had a few days in Shropshire; mind you I did get to Pedlars Tray in Hereford. Great little shop - oodles of stuff. My husband and friend went to look at the cathedral while I was in there. You now have absolute proof that I am obsessed.... preferring a dolls house shop to a tour of a cathedral. Philistine! Truly I have seen the cathedral before but, to be really honest, I don't remember it. I also have visitors this weekend for a few days so it will be a week before I can get back to Bentleys. So here's where I am up to:

The bedroom has all of the furniture from the girl's room in the Wentworth. I wanted to use it to hold various objects and settle on a layout before buying pieces for this room. I am actually getting to like it as it is. The chest needs a cushion on top when I make the drapes. The bed needs new bedding to suit the room/period. The towel rail/quilt rack has a temporary blue blanket on it which will be replaced by a single quilt. White painted furniture is good for a young woman in 1911 so it might just stay.

Again, here in the kitchen, I was keen to get as much placed as possible so I can see where the gaps are or whether I want to change anything. I think with two shelves over the food cupboard the furnishing will be finished. The armchair needs a cushion and the dresser and food cupboards need filling properly. I have got the shelf for above the sink but it needs cup-hooks and other stuff before it gets put in place. If anyone know where I can get the very tiny cup-hooks PLEASE tell me. I haven't managed to find them despite a lot of searching.

The workroom obviously needs a load of things. I am putting a long shop counter across the back of the room for the cutting out/dressmaking area with shelves above it. That should cost me an arm and a leg to fill. The front left corner will have a mannequin with a part made suit on it for the Titanic collection which is currently being worked on by Ellen. The front right corner is the inspiration corner - in other words I don't know what I want there until I see it.

Daisy seems to have disappeared from the parlour. She is now in the shop dusting a box from a display. Thursday, half day closing is the only day she can get in the shop and give it a good clean right through. I think this room is completely furnished. I might re-cover the chairs and I need a couple of pictures and a mirror. Ellen has a collection of French silver in one cabinet and a collection of books in the other. The table on the back wall is laid up for meals when Ellen is eating with someone else, such as her friend Molly. If she eats on her own she is happy to eat in the kitchen, like she does when she is in France.

This is a photo of me trying to fill the sherry decanter with real sherry. The smell and finger licking was delicious. It was a real nightmare as the neck of the decanter is so fine any liquid just forms an immediate airlock. This is a sort of home cobbled foil funnel. It wasn't a huge success as I still wasted more than I could get in. I gave up at half full. My tea and coffee containers also contain actual tea and coffee. I am sure it will be fine to use stuff that doesn't have much (if any) volatility. Time will tell.

The ugly cat has been given a place eye-balling the magpie outside the shop. We really did have a cat that looked and behaved like this one. His name was Pudding for what I think are obvious reasons. The more elegant cat - Oscar - has a home inside the kitchen.Also outside there is an elegant lady - dressed for her own garden rather than a High Street! - looking in the window of the shop. If you want to see her or any other details just click on the album Bentleys by room.